Bob Fedderly kicks off campaign, ready to challenge other candidates in Peace River North riding

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Independent candidate and local business man Bob Fedderly officially kicked off his campaign for the upcoming provincial election on May 9 last night at Whole Wheat and Honey.

With a large crowd in attendance, Fedderly first introduced the people that will be key during his campaign.

Fedderly is currently running against Liberal candidate and Fort St. John City Councillor Dan Davies, Independent (Mayor of Taylor) Rob Fraser and Independent Jeff Richert. Fedderly confirmed to Energeticcity.ca that he was running on February 7.

He took the time to spell out his campaign goals and his plan.

“The question I’ve been asked the most frequently here is why am I running in this upcoming election but it is pretty simple.

I believe I can make a difference, I know I can make a difference and I can affect positive change that will work for Peace River North.”

Fedderly also pointed to his business experience. He believes this is something that can weigh in his favour come May 9.

“I have the energy and business experience to take your issues to Victoria.”

He explained that the next question he gets asked about is why he chose to run Independent compared to running with a party.

“The experience I have and the lessons I’ve learned along the way and working with residents in Peace River North and the reality is that the spirit of independence is alive and well here. Each of you is independent in one way or another and in order to be successful here, you must be independent.”

A major difference as Fedderly points out is that he won’t be distracted by party politics and political agendas.

“By electing me as the Independent MLA, your concerns will have my utmost attention because I will not be distracted by party politics or agendas driven by southern interest.”

Fedderly took time to meet with the media afterwards. He says he was glad to see such a high turnout of people.

“We didn’t know what to expect but we thought that we would have a reasonably good turnout and there has been excellent support. Change is in the wind and party politics don’t work anymore.”

He also took the time to asses the BC Liberal Budget that was released earlier this week, saying that the Liberals are ignoring the debt load on the province.

“The biggest problem with the BC Budget is that they haven’t done anything to address the total and contractual debts have piled up to about $168 billion dollars. The Liberals are professional at twisting the numbers around and they are actually borrowing money through crown corporations. “

Liberal candidate Dan Davies held his kick off event on February 12. Current Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm, who is also a Independent after stepping down from the Liberal Caucus due to legal allegations brought against him, said that if you decide to vote Independent in the election, that is like ‘throwing your vote in the garbage can’. Fedderly adressed that statement and says that doesn’t respect democracy of the people.

“That is totally incorrect as we all know because we’ve got effective independents right now and we’ve had effective independents in the past. To indicate to the electorate that your vote is being ‘thrown away’, that shows a lack of respect for the democratic process. No vote is ever thrown away. That is your right as a Canadian to vote and it is the only way that you can express yourself if you want change. Parties are quite comfortable at pointing the finger at Independents can’t do anything but in fact, they do.”

Fedderly doesn’t see a challenge when it comes to running against Liberal candidate and City Councillor Dan Davies.

“No, I don’t think so. When it comes down to it, business experience, I have 35 years experience of running a business in the northern part of B.C. It gives you a skill set that is hard to duplicate and the challenges through our economic times and the challenges in robust economic times with commodity prices, you have to set yourself up to adjust for that and I’ve got the experience to do that and I know that there are jobs to be created, infrastructure to work on and we’ve got to work on cleaning up party politics.”

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